


HL1 Tag Team - Outline

by mixeradiotv (Mikearoni)



Category: Half-Life
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Rated T for language, is it platonic? is it romantic? either way works its whatever yall want, less a fic and more a really casual outline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24846826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikearoni/pseuds/mixeradiotv
Summary: A breakdown of Half-Life's events if Gordon Freeman hadn't been alone.
Relationships: Barney Calhoun & Gordon Freeman, Barney Calhoun/Gordon Freeman (ambiguous)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 72





	HL1 Tag Team - Outline

So Barney and Gordon go to work yeah? They stop and talk for just a bit, laughing, enjoying each other’s company. Average day. They’re both a little late, but there’s no harm in being just a second tardier. Barney’s stationed at that hub outside of the anomalous materials lab, Gordon goes to the test chamber as usual.

Resonance Cascade.

Shit hits the fan and Barney freaks out. First thing he does is head for the test chamber. Yes, it’s probably where the eye of the metaphorical storm is, but fuck, there’s people back there. People like Gordon.

Gordon’s also freaking the fuck out. He’s quick but he’s unarmed, and the halls are suddenly full of zombies. One misstep and he’s cornered. The HEV suit would keep him alive a little longer than most, but it isn’t invincible.

Good thing Barney’s quick AND armed. He takes out the baddies and they reunite, both equally freaked the fuck out but mutually stabilized by the presence of someone trustworthy.

Gordon gets himself a crowbar and Barney’s kind of astonished at how fast Gordon adapts to using a weapon. What a guy, huh?

They make a lot of progress and kill a lot of aliens--Gordon is often hesitant, as the thinker he is, studying rooms and enemies until he’s confident he can get past them as easily as possible. Barney’s quicker on the draw, ready to take out anything that’s threatening either him or Gordon the very instant it leaps. They definitely even each other out over time though, and Barney’s absolutely floored when Gordon’s newly-acquired trigger finger has him accidentally firing the grenade launcher at a flock of headcrabs.

The military enters the picture.

Gordon, by chance, is the first one to shoot back once they realize the marines are hostile. Word spreads quickly that Freeman, the guy in orange, is taking on the military with the help of a security officer. Because Barney’s in uniform, and so is every other officer, they’re never actually sure whether it’s the same officer or not they keep running into.

The lights go out. They get jumped.

Gordon’s knocked unconscious right away. Barney’s too concerned about who he might hit if he tried shooting, so he straight up tries to fistfight the marines in total darkness. He goes down kicking and screaming, but is ultimately incapacitated. His hands are bound and he’s tossed into one of the shipping containers a bunch of scientists get trapped in in Blue Shift. They’re holding him for questioning in the future. He’s the one security officer they’ve seen interacting with Freeman, after all. Gordon is too much of an annoyance and gets the garbage chute.

Barney, eventually, breaks his way out of the shipping container, picks a direction, and then just runs. He lets instinct and security training take over as he guns down marines and aliens alike. No thoughts, self-preservation only.

He’s now shooting marines from around corners, sneaking up on them, throwing grenades, taking the bastards out before they even know he’s there. A real trooper. As such, he doesn’t hear their chatter about how Freeman is still at large.

Barney’s absolutely dumbstruck when he spots a flash of orange and black--on the other end of a literal minefield no less. He yells out to Gordon, who, on god, was about to walk right into a landmine. Gordon’s glad but frazzled, and the two frantically circle around until they DON’T have a minefield between them. They embrace.

They can’t relax just yet, but they’re both infinitely more optimistic and capable now that they’re partnered up once more. Barney watches Gordon maneuver an RPG launcher in awe. Gordon watches Barney clobber headcrabs with a crowbar in a similar awe. They walk and talk about the respective fucked-up shit they’ve just been through.

They both slowly realize Black Mesa has been tampering with things like this for a long time, a-la Questionable Ethics. Gordon, though trying not to let it show, is honestly shaken. He just wants to keep going. Barney, had he found this out on his own, would have seemed just as upset. Because Gordon’s here, however, and he can tell how much it’s fucking the poor guy up, Barney gets pissed. He snaps at the next scientist npc they run into.

They make it to the Lambda complex together. They take turns having one work on flooding the reactors while the other fends off aliens.

The teleport system is online.

The scientists insist that only Gordon should go through, as he’s got an HEV suit, and Barney says ‘hey fuck you’ and grabs as much ammo as he can carry.

The two enter Xen. Xen is fucking terrifying.

Neither of them had spent much time stopping and thinking about the situation at hand, as that would have gotten them killed. It dawns on the both of them just how fucking big this shit actually is. They aren’t just shooting aliens now, no. There’s a whole other fucking dimension, and things are only escalating from there. The gravity of the danger they and their world are in weighs on their shoulders. The two go long stretches of time just silently moving forwards, incapable of talking (or signing) about it. What do you say? What the fuck do you even say?

They get used to Xen eventually, and the scary silence falls away. They fall back into a combat routine. Now they can tell that they’re making progress.

Boss fight time.

They tag team the final boss, whose name I can’t remember how to spell right now. They’re both staying alive today, you alien son of a bitch. As fucked up as this whole situation seems, neither can help a sense of morbid pride as they take down the being allegedly responsible for their misery. Gordon and Barney drift out of consciousness.

They wake up to a speech.

Gordon’s on his own while the man in the suit rates his performance. Barney has a similar experience. They’re both dazed, confused, wondering where the other is until they teleport into the same cablecar setpiece. They embrace again, adrenaline starting to run out for the both of them, and it feels so much more like closure this time. They’re holding each other for a long, long while, uninterrupted.

G-Man presents his final offer to the two.

God, they’re both so tired. But they fucking lived.

It’s Gordon who wants to protest. He wants to tell the guy to leave them alone, let them fight their own battles in peace. But Barney’s so tired. And Gordon’s so god damn scared. He can’t put him through this again. The two make eye contact, and they don’t need to talk, or sign, or anything to make their decision.

Whatever is through that portal, at least they’ll face it together.


End file.
